Things have a way of changing so gradually, it’s sometimes easy to forget how it used to be. Back in the day, we used to all think a guy singing about pineapples, pens, apples, and pineapples was just the greatest thing.
It was also a time when an economic policy by the late Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, both affectionately and unaffectionately known as “Abenomics,” was just full of ideas to stimulate some spending in Japan. One of these initiatives was Premium Friday, which started in 2017 and encouraged companies to allow staff to punch out a little earlier on the last Friday of every month, in the hopes they go see a movie, toss an axe around, or do anything that gets them spreading around some disposable income.
It might not sound like much, but it was a rather bold request since Japanese working culture is notoriously passive-aggressive about workers spending the maximum possible time at work, to the point that many don’t even use their allotted vacation days.
So, it probably wasn’t such a shock that Premium Friday didn’t take the country by storm. By 2020, the program was largely seen as a joke, and the pandemic pretty much squashed any remaining chance of it regaining any traction. However, it was never officially ended at any point.
On the contrary, the official website “premium-friday.com” had been up and running until June 1 of this year, and an archive of it from last May shows an article from December 2021 explaining how a Premium Friday lifestyle of embracing drinking at home and leaving a little earlier when traveling can help to cope in a post-pandemic world. There was also an announcement for a Premium Friday clarinet concert in October 2022.
There was even a cluster of Premium Friday promotions last May when the COVID-19 threat was downgraded. This news report covered them and optimistically ended by saying they “seem likely to grow in popularity.”
But with the shutdown of the website last June, it appears our main channel of Premium Friday information has been officially closed. Moreover, ownership of the website’s domain is set to expire on 13 August and as of this writing, the owners at the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry have yet to do anything about it.
There’s still time for a last-minute Hail Mary save, but the future for Premium Friday is not looking bright…if it ever did in the first place. Readers of the news were utterly devastated over the possible loss of Premium Friday in online comments. They just had a hard time expressing it.
“Is that still going on? I totally forgot about it.”
“It never really even started.”
“It’s hard to get into the ‘premium’ vibe with all the taxes and prices going up.”
“That was a pointless campaign.”
“I wonder how many millions of yen they spent on it.”
“Has the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry ever accomplished anything?”
“A company near mine used to do it in the early days but stopped soon after. My company never did it.”
“Hang on just a minute now! What about Shining Monday?”
Shining Monday was the follow-up campaign to Premium Friday in which employees could go to work a little later in the morning on the Monday after the last Friday of every month. However, it was the creation of the minority Komeito Party and was never formally adopted by the ruling party.
And it looks as if Premium Friday is set to join Shining Monday on the island of misfit policies right alongside Cool Japan.
Source: Internet Watch, Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry, Way Back Machine/ Premium Friday
Read more stories from SoraNews24.
-- “The one and only way to make people in Japan take more vacation time”
-- Burger King rubs salt in Japan’s overworked wounds with limited-edition Premium Friday Whopper
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- External Link
- https://soranews24.com/2023/08/05/what-ever-happened-to-premium-friday-japanese-government-looks-set-to-pull-the-plug/
12 Comments
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JeffLee
It was a very good idea. The problem is that Japan's private-sector employers are dinosaurs, and sadistic ones at that.
The government does have some good ideas on work-life balance. The problem is trying to convince employers that holding their workers hostage for 10 to 14 hours a day is damaging to society on many levels.
David Brent
To be successful, schemes like Premium Friday require monumental shifts in Japanese culture and thinking; shifts which need to happen from elementary school up.
But these changes will never happen here due to Japan still very much being a feudalistic gerontocracy.
Sam Watters
My university scheduled its monthly staff meetings to be on Premium Friday stating that after the meeting would be a great time to go out for a drink. True story.
virusrex
The program was a terrible idea, it depended completely on companies having a healthy work-life balance on the first place so employees could leave early once a month.
The reality is that most people are working even more than what they are supposed to, and trying very hard to hide excessive hours spent at work when they surpass what is acceptable. If people still have to do overtime daily and for some to even work on weekends obviously any time lost to the premium Friday was not something they would take as positive.
Mocheake
Ignoring the kicking, screaming and outright refusal, some try to drag Japan into the 20th century. It's not working but I am heartened that a few out there are willing to keep plugging.
藤原
If the government would allow, Japanese companies would work an employee for 23 hours a day and only pay them for 8 hours.
Speed
No, I didn't.
Premium Friday was just another idea by incompetent and overpaid public sector heads.
It had to be pushed on to all or most companies in order for it to work.
And just think, they're going to get one of the biggest pay raises in 26 years, according another JT article.
finally rich
Couldnt agree more.
Its actually depressing going anywhere on a weekday by 3pm and see all the beautiful places completely empty, except for pensioners and housewives.
It was a great idea that could have eased quite a few problems in this country, including depression and birth rates.
I'm the living example of Premium Friday.
Every week is Premium Friday for me.
It doesnt matter how busy the week was, 3 full days to slow down and actually enjoy things and places at your own pace including 1 weekday to solve any pending issue anywhere is a bliss.
kohakuebisu
I wonder how much insider consultants from Dentsu, Hakuhodo etc. got paid for all the promotion. I bet it was a large sum.
Initiatives to get Japanese to work less should be encouraged, but the best way is through flexibility and workplace cooperation, not this or national holidays where everyone is directed to move in the same direction at the same time. A big reason stopping people taking the statutory holidays they have already is resentment from coworkers. So long as "worker=corporate slave" and not "worker=person who contributes" persists, opportunities will be limited for non-corporate slaves, e.g, more independent-minded people, people with childcare responsibilities, or people caring for elderly, etc.
Derek Grebe
Premium Friday was a success for only one company - Dentsu, who got tens of millions of taxpayer yen to handle the publicity for this white elephant.
Face it - any endeavour to persuade the average office worker to leave a fluorescent-lit, window-blinds closed, hermetically-sealed, earnestly-silent assigned seat a moment before any of his colleagues (whether or not any of them are actually doing a scrap of work in their 14-hour day) was doomed to ignominious failure.
But the Dentsu boys got their slice so kanpai!
Sven Asai
The impact on economy is negative, because less groups of employees or other people will go out on Fridays evenings. But the idea is not such bad. Maybe they should change it to Wednesday or Thursday. Remains the problem anyway, that nowadays and with such hyperinflation everyone needs the full hours and extra or overtime hours payment. In fact something is wrong in general, and it is still not addressed or expressed, neither by voters, employees, companies, unions or government. It's all put under the carpet as usual and remains unoutspoken or ignored, just heavily piling up to all the other known problem catalogs.
kurisupisu
I enjoy the roads and attractions in Japan on weekdays when the need to queue or push through crowds is non existent.
Having hordes of people with nothing to do is dangerous for society